BUSHMEN AT LAW.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 220, 16 September 1924, Page 8

BUSHMEN AT LAW.

TAKING OF ACCOUNTS. ALLEGED PARTNERSHIP DISPUTE. Judgment for plaintiff was given by Mr. Justice Herdman in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon in the case in which Leslie Francis Johnstone, bushman, of Dargaville, sought a declaration that a partnership existed between himself and Bartley Hendl, bush contractor, of Dargaville, and also that accounts be taken and that he be paid the amount due to him. Mr. Richmond appeared for plaintiff, and Mr. Goulding for defendant. • . In giving judgment, Mr. Justice Herdman said he could see nothing remarkable in the fact that plaintiff ,was to be paid 40 per cent of the net profits in a bush work contract at Kaukapakapa. Apparently he had been sought out by Hendl as a man'who could get the required rickers. Had the agreement not been a merely verbal one the action might not have resulted. Although there was no written agreement, there were a number of small details tending to indicate that truth lay on plaintiff's side. His Honor found that an agreement had been entered into, by which Johnstone was to be paid 40 per cent of the net profits. His Honor thought it better to take that view than to declare that there had been a partnership. An order was made that accounts be taken, and that plaintiff be entitled to the amount found due to him, with interest at 8 per cent.